Craig Amai leaves WoW Team

[GutsTheWarrior]

It's not at all surprising with people who've worked together for years and have formed a camaraderie to all end up at another company together. If he has an opportunity to start at the ground level someplace else nobody can blame him.

Good point, I'd say its more the timing of everything that has people raising their eyebrows

[Kaneiac]

plenty of others who have left, metzen,ghostcrawler, craig amai,tseric, there is quite alot who have left over the years

People in lead positions, particularly in the game industry, shuffle around quite a lot. There's no more room for advancement or any sort of new ground per se in those sort of positions.

[Marema]

Good point, I'd say its more the timing of everything that has people raising their eyebrows

It takes one person to take a leap of faith to start over and get the ball rolling then that gives others more confidence to follow suit.

[Frostyfire14]

If you read the actual blog he posted, he said he just needs to explore other opportunities. He was simply tired and overworked. This game is huge. And it keeps growing.

He also said he'll most likely return to Blizzard if he can after he explores and experiences other options.

WoW is not dying. It's just going to see new Designers.

Which is a good thing.

[epec]

"Nick Carpenter - Former Vice President of Art & Cinematic Development at Blizzard." and "Matthew Versluys - Former Director of Battle.net Engineering."

Joined Bonfire Studios with Rob Pardo. Seems fairly significant.

Wow, Rob Pardo is really poaching the talent this time around from Blizzard. I wonder what he's cooking up. I certainly hope it is better than the abomination that Firefall became.

[Testaxc]

It's called going out on a high note. Not that complicated really.

After WoD that's the smartest thing to do; gtfo before they get lazy again.

[xanzul]

Lead Quest Designer

http://www.craigmakesgames.com/blog/...rting-from-wow

There is more than one lead quest designer. Can the mods please just start locking up these threads and infracting the people who make them? There is nothing to discuss here.

[Plutarch78]

Why? His hair looks dumb as hell.

He's probably gonna transition shortly thereafter.

[Gadzooks]

all those doomsayers claiming this is predicting wows downfall... just so pathetic. Have you ever actually worked somewhere? For more than a year? People who work in the video game industry usually have a creative mind and want to express themselves. Working for years or now even over a decade on the same game...not working for everyone. New challenges, new job opportunities...that's all. Sure, some may be disappointed what direction the game or the company is going...but who cares? It's better to take the risk to get someone new and motivated for a job, than employing someone who is unhappy and therefore will not be as productive and creative as he could be.

I'm really sick and tired of all those "are you blind? wow is going to blahblahblah" people who think they got it all figured out. Go away. Or shush.

I think most of them are kids, who don't know how the adult world works, or adults who don't have a lot of experience. Game design is a lot like working on movies - you have the lead time where it's a 8-5 job, like anyone else, then crunch time hits - the last couple of weeks/months before release. That's when 18 hour days kick in, working weekends, sleeping under your desk, working weekends and holidays - you burn out fast. You get one every two years with WoW.

You also can't assume that everyone gets along. You might get promoted, and find out the new guy above you just rubs you the wrong way - or there's open hostility. You might develop healyh conditions from stress that force you to step back or down. You might work on Wow, but your dream is to work on a Fallout type game. Or a new genre pops up, and you really want to try it out.

I know people that have left "dream jobs", in multiple fields. I know people that have left ILM, Disney, Geffen Records, some of the biggest ad agencies, law careers at big law firms, even practicing as a doctor. People change as they get older, interests change, or you achieve goals and find new ones that mean leaving the company you're at.

And, Blizzard is doing just fine. They're putting out award winning games, they make billions of dollars, they're not laying people off, and they seem to be stable and productive. ONE guy leaves, and they're doomed? LOL. No. They'll even survive losing Metzen. If they were a small 20 man studio, it would be a concern, but Blizzard is big enough now to hire the best of the best to replace them, or bring someone up internally.

Just remember - Craig started at Blizzard as a GM. He left as a dev lead. That's AMAZING for any company these days. The days of getting a job at a major corporation in the mail room, and ending up as management are extremely rare these days. Blizzard is unique that they will hire without the obligatory degree in game design, and will use real world experience as a reason to hire someone. GC was an Oceanography major. Ion was a practicing lawyer. Kaplan and Afrasiabi were Everquest players.

[kamuimac]

best leveling experiences the game has ever had, lul lackluster

i am genuinly jealous of you if you found leveling in legion as amazing as you claim - for me it was worst leveling in any of expansions so far - duno hwy but it felt extremly slow and boring

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I think most of them are kids, who don't know how the adult world works, or adults who don't have a lot of experience. Game design is a lot like working on movies - you have the lead time where it's a 8-5 job, like anyone else, then crunch time hits - the last couple of weeks/months before release. That's when 18 hour days kick in, working weekends, sleeping under your desk, working weekends and holidays - you burn out fast. You get one every two years with WoW.

that may be true for regular workers/coders - you clearly have no f... clue if you think lead managment works liek that too.

[Gadzooks]

This isn't going to happen unless they get a LOT more funding and massively expand the team - to literally dozens or hundreds of people.

They have $25m. That was how much Dark Age of Camelot cost to make in 2001. WoW cost $63m (arriving in 2004). I can't think of a successful, attractive MMO from the last five years that has cost less than $100m - and some much more - SWTOR was rumoured at upwards of $200m.

So I would suspect that they'll go a lot smaller-scale than an MMO, at least to start with.

Also, I don't mean to be rude, but your fantasy here is pretty much identical to the ones some EverQuest players had when Brad McQuaid left EQ and went on to make an MMO was to be "The REAL EverQuest 2", all old-skool and stuff - that was Vanguard, and it was a massive commercial failure, not least because people don't want that kind of game, despite saying they do - or at least not enough to matter.

So they'd need to make a good game first, and if it evoked the best aspects of early WoW, great, but it has to be a good game in it's own right - it absolutely cannot trade on "We're going back to the old-skool!". That is guaranteeing failure.

Look at Curt Schilling and 38 Studios. They blew through 5 million of Curt's money, and 75 million in taxpayer money, and never released anything.

[Tharkkun]

INB4 everyone at Blizz is slowling leaving to go to Rob Pardo new company to get rid of Activision

That would be great actually. But I doubt that's where he's headed.

[Shadowbane]

So there I was, enjoying Legion, when I heard Metzen left. Damn, I thought. I liked him. Now Craig Amai is leaving too? Suddenly I felt my eyes roll back in my skull and I began foaming at the mouth. When I recovered, I suddenly could no longer enjoy Legion. All of a sudden I could see every conceivable flaw in the game. It was a revelation, the like of which only I could comprehend. It became transparent - more so than glass, that the game is dying. I can't believe I was playing the game just a few days ago. Now I can't. How could I possibly enjoy a game where people in the company that made it are leaving? In my infinite wisdom into the minds of others, I can obviously deduce that the quality of the recently-released expansion is only reason people would leave the company. Why would anyone want to leave the company they work at if the company is doing good!? Can no-one else comprehend the merit of my perspective?!?! Something something REAL MMO!?!?

- some people.

Good luck to the guy, though. He clearly wants to take his career in a different direction to do different things... and let's be honest - there's never a good time in the player's eyes to leave Blizzard. If you do it before an expansion, you think it's a sinking ship. If you do it mid-way through an expansion, it's obviously a sign that the expansion is bad enough for people to want to quit. If you do it right after release, we get this. People are probably coming and going to Blizzard far often than we realise or report, it's only when we do that it seems like some great overhaul we should cry doomsday about.

[Tharkkun]

i am genuinly jealous of you if you found leveling in legion as amazing as you claim - for me it was worst leveling in any of expansions so far - duno hwy but it felt extremly slow and boring

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that may be true for regular workers/coders - you clearly have no f... clue if you think lead managment works liek that too.

I work for one of the largest software companies on this planet. We have over 150 products. The last month before a product release every manager, developer and IT professional involved are tearing their hair out. It's even worse for gaming companies because people aren't forgiving for release day, launch failures. You either get it right or your game is doomed.

[FelPlague]

Ghostcrawler, Bashiok, Crithto, Metzen, Amai. The list goes on and on actually. A lot of people have been leaving that have been with the company for a very long time and it's rather surprising.

and ghost crawler left cata, bashiok and crithto in wod, and mer and amai in legion? its allmost like wow has been out 12 years and people are taking wows recent sucsess that is legion as their time to say " ok yall are doing good, im out guys, im gunna take my shares and retire"

[Zantos]

Two people is everyone? lol.

I mean, there was a pretty large list of people leaving right before this.

[Pantalaimon]

Two people is everyone? lol.

No, but these last two (especially Metzen) are a lot more important than your daily Blizzard HQ janitor. I am in no why saying WoW is going to die soon (It's not), but how is the game to change in subtle, or less subtle ways, and will that change be smooth going into the newer planned content or will it negatively affect one or more aspects of the game until things blow over?

[Rekz]

Blizzard's losing lots of the old guard. I wonder what's going on over there.

[Khain]

Funny cuz today I just met a guy in my job that used to work at Blizzard, he said he left because he started to hate the company and that it became completely corporate over the years.

[BreakerOfWills]

if he's responsible for the hunter order hall and class campaign/weapon quests then good riddance.